Revealed: UK concealed failure to alert EU over 75,000 criminal convictions
Officials feared ‘reputational impact’ of error in which details of crimes by foreigners were not passed on
The UK has failed to pass on the details of 75,000 convictions of foreign criminals to their home EU countries and concealed the scandal for fear of damaging Britain’s reputation in Europe’s capitals, the Guardian can reveal.
The police national computer error went undetected for five years, during which one in three alerts on offenders – potentially including murderers and rapists – were not sent to EU member states.